Wise board OKs contracts for two new high schools
By Steve Igo
Published November 21st, 2011 10:24 pm
WISE — The Wise County School Board on Monday moved forward projects for new high school facilities, including a comprehensive agreement resolution with a design/build team to construct two new high schools.
The comprehensive agreement is under the state Public-Private Education Act (PPEA) program and will provide a new Union High School to be built behind the old Powell Valley High School in Big Stone Gap, and a new facility on the site that encompasses the football field of Central High School, the former J.J. Kelly High School in Wise.
This summer the school division moved forward with a high school consolidation plan that closed schools in Appalachia, Pound and St. Paul and sent students in those service areas to Union, Central and Eastside, the former Coeburn High School.
The new high schools in Big Stone Gap and Wise will be of the same design. Under the PPEA, builders agree to provide finished projects at a guaranteed price, in this case $25 million for each new high school.
The overall $60 million in combined projects will include a new 50,000-square-foot academic wing at Eastside and a new $1.5 million gym at Appalachia Elementary School. The Eastside and gym projects are to be constructed via the traditional bidding process, and the school board on Monday also took action on those items.
Thompson & Litton, a Wise architectural and engineering firm, and OWPR, a design/build consortium, were contracted Monday to move forward — initially with architectural and engineering work — on the $8.5 million Eastside project. T&L was also approved to produce initial architectural schematics for the new gym.
Read More of this story at: http://www.timesnews.net/article/9038598
